Product Evaluations

Product evaluations are often a puzzle. How do we evaluate the thousands of products whose ads we receive by mail, view on TV or in magazines and newspapers, or run across on the Internet? There are so many products out there, and in spite of the Truth in Advertising rules set forth by the Federal Trade Commission, the ads are often full of exaggerations and misleading statements. Or they leave out information needed to make an accurate judgment of the product. I have some great tips on judging exaggerations, misleading statements, clinical trials, before and after pictures, and much more.

Product evaluations are your job. Even back in the days when there were few choices and the snake-oil dealers were hawking most of those choices, the consumer had to evaluate the product.

There are several things you need to consider when choosing a product.

The easiest way to evaluate products is by your emotions.

• If the ad makes a product sound exciting,

• If it is visually (and nowadays also audibly) attractive,

• If it offers a "real deal" if you buy now, or

• If it offers a dozen (more or less) extra articles that you will receive with the product, and

• You buy it based on any or all of those criteria:

You have made a product evaluation by your emotions.

This is not the best way to do product evaluations!

I have been lured into buying products by great sounding copy; usually I have regretted it. I bet you can relate to that, too!

As I have gotten older, I have gradually refined how I evaluate products and I have come up with a method that has saved me from buying a lot of junk and helped me to buy some excellent products (although sometimes I still get pulled in by hype). This has been especially helpful in regards to diet programs, supplements, and other health and anti aging products.

Let me share my method with you. Here is the general set of steps. Each one is given in more detail on the page links shown in the following paragraphs.

First, I became aware of the Federal Trade Commission's Truth in Advertising rules, especially pertaining to Internet advertising since I prefer to shop there instead of traipsing all over the place.

First, I carefully look at each individual product advertisement---what claims it actually makes and what claims it simply implies. I notice everything I can about the ad. In fact, I have a whole list of things I use to scrutinize anti aging advertising ---I look at every word!

Next, on products where this is applicable (for example, personal and household care items, and food supplements, but not exercise equipment) I look carefully at the ingredients. And I mean all of the ingredients. You would be amazed at the number of toxic ingredients >---or potentially toxic---in most of these products! If I am looking at one particular product, often this ends it right there. If I eliminated that product, but still need a product in a specific category (such as antiaging face creams or a vitamin supplement), I look for more products and submit them to the same scrutiny.

(When I was doing research for this Website, one anti-wrinkle cream that I saw listed all of the active ingredients in the product, but none of the inactive ingredients. So I sent them an e-mail asking for the full list of ingredients. I received it within 12 hours---not too common! I do whatever it takes to do a thorough product evaluation.)

Once I have eliminated certain products in those first steps, I research products that remain as possibilities by looking into the clinical or other research that has been done on each product. It is amazing how little product research is actually easily available, if at all.

So, now I have some products that have passed all of my product evaluation steps so far. I still have several competing products that I want to choose from. All of them have testimonials for the products, and many have before and after pictures.

In the "good old days," a picture was what it was. Nowadays pictures can be altered to show whatever someone wants them to show---Go to the Dermitage Anti-Aging System to see an "instant" example. Each before and after picture also needs to be evaluated, and I have some tips for doing that.

Product endorsements or testimonials also need to be scrutinized. In this day of imaginative advertising, anybody can (and does!) say almost anything, and they can hire people to dramatize product testimonials in very convincing ways. How can you distinguish the real from the dramatized? I don't have a foolproof method for this, but I do have some tips to help in this step of your product evaluations.

Some folks believe that money back guarantees are an indication of a good product. Read the money back guarantees page to see why I don't buy that.

Once you have gone through all of these evaluation procedures, if you still have more than one product left, you can go by your gut feeling or by the emotional choice based on the better advertisement. Hey---whoever said product evaluations were easy? Not me! But they can be fun---and certainly rewarding---when you have found the perfect (well, almost perfect!) product for your needs.

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